1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the printing of computer generated reports. The present invention specifically relates to a user friendly printing format for generating computer reports.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1A, a computer generated Return Equipment Material Report (RMER) 10 including a header section 20, a replacement parts section 30 listing line items 31a–31t, and a footer section 40 is shown. Header section 20 presents shipping information related to a customer, such as, for example, customer number, division number, address, etc. Line times 31a–31t consists of information related to a particular part, such as, for example, a part number, a quantity, a serial number, etc. Footer section 40 presents shipping information related to a shipping department, such as, for example, number of items shipped, date, shipment verification, etc.
Prior to the present invention, a printout of RMER 10 was based on the contents of RMER 10 being displayed in a display window of a computer monitor. Thus, the overall length of RMER 10 relative to a length of each display window was a determining factor as to the number of printed pages of RMER 10. For example, a prior art printout of RMER 10 consists of a printed page P1 as shown in FIG. 1B that corresponds to a parts subsection 30a listing line items 31a–31h as displayed in a display window 50a as shown in FIG. 1A. A printed page P2 as shown in FIG. 1C corresponds to a parts subsection 30b listing line items 31i–31g being displayed in a display window 50b of RMER 10 as shown in FIG. 1A. And, a printed page P3 as shown in FIG. 1D corresponds to a parts subsection 30c listing line items 31r–31t being displayed in a display window 50c of RMER 10 as shown in FIG. 1A.
Referring to FIGS. 1B–1D, a problem of printed pages P1–P3 occurs when printed pages P1–P3 are separated. Specifically, the ability to determine that printed pages P1–P3 are collectively representative of RMER 10 is diminished when printed pages P1–P3 are separated due to the lack of mutual identifying information on printed pages P1–P3. Consequently, to obtain mutually identifying information on each printed page, a user of a system for generating RMER 10 was forced to initially input line items 31a–31g, and then a print page P4 as shown in FIG. 1E. The user subsequently deleted line items 31a–31g, inputted line items 31h–31n, and then printed a page P5 including a parts subsection 30d listing line items 31h–31n as shown in FIG. 1F. The user subsequently deleted line items 31h–31n, inputted line items 31o–31t, and then printed a page P6 including a parts subsection 30e listing line items 31a–31t as shown in FIG. 1G.
A user of the prior art system for generating RMER 10 can input mistakes whereby the user may have to re-print each required page of RMER 10 when the mistake significantly shifts the line items 31 within parts section 30. Additionally, if the user wants to have the ability to edit each printing page, the user has to save each printed page as a separate file as opposed to one file for RMER 10. Thus, the prior art approach for generating and printing RMER 10 was inefficient and inconvenient. The present invention addresses the problems with the prior art.